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Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Blade Runner: Black Lotus
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dm
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Posts: 1386 |
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I can't argue with the reviewer's ambivalence at all.
This is being competently done, but so far it hasn't done much to engage the viewer. There's no hook to distinguish this from any other bit of cyberpunk. We could be watching Battle Angel Alita --- and if we were, the 60-odd minutes we've spent so far would have shown us some characters we cared about, we'd have a stronger sense of "Detective Dude"'s tragic back-story, we'd probably be more involved in Elle's sense of mystery about herself, and we'd have a stronger bond to some of the side-characters like Doc Badger. And, we wouldn't mind so much that we were seeing a retread, since Alita came from a time when all those tropes were new. |
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Beatdigga
Posts: 4418 Location: New York |
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I don't know if I said it in another post, but I think this show had the really bad luck of debuting a few weeks after Arcane raised the bar for CG shows. Through no fault of its own, the show was completely eclipsed in the animation sphere by a much higher quality production and one that seems to genuinely move CG forward.
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dm
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Posts: 1386 |
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Oh, but I did like resurrecting the old Voight-Kampff test equipment from the original series. And I sort-of like the Aztec-y motifs in the apartment design, again paying homage to Deckard's old apartment.
The reviewer got the "analog tech" part of the design aesthetic right. |
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Wyvern
Posts: 1570 |
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Seconding the praise for the "analog tech" (and Grant's pointing it out.) I really appreciate that they're not trying to "update" Blade Runner's world to account for technological advances in real life. Instead it's consistent with what folks in 1983 thought the 21st century would look like, and that helps it stand out. While this show takes place a few years from now, the original movie took place in 2019, so unless the writers felt like retconning the first movie completely, there's no way they can sell Blade Runner to the audience as a prediction of the future.
So instead the show is fully committing to showing us an alternate present, where we've colonized other planets and perfected robots, but computers look like they're from the 80's and there doesn't seem to be an internet. And that's much more engaging than if the writers had tried to give everyone a smartphone. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar Posts: 16941 |
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I hadn't even considered that myself. Which is ironic as I opted to put Black Lotus on hold after episode 2 and start watching Arcane. I have to agree with the previous sentiment it's lacking a bit of a bigger hook. Something to snag you and keep you interested. By the end of episode 2 I found myself thinking that it's a really cool looking animated adaptation of the Blade Runner universe, but I just wasn't caring too much about the story and characters thus far. |
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enurtsol
Posts: 14795 |
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Well, she did try to pay him for it even though she doesn't have money.......... Incidentally, they actually started working on this a long 3 years ago. From Elle's voice actress herself:
Also, this is an interesting technical point from a professional (compared to, say, fan-dubbers):
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jdnation
Posts: 2015 |
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Finally watched the first 3 episodes.
I do like that they are keeping the Blade Runner aesthetics. I do find the call-backs a little tiresome. Dennis Vellineuve's 2049 film smartly avoided much of that. Yes, we've all seen the Geisha girl advertisement etc. So that's just a nit-pick. On the CG - I'll say that the environments and props all look pretty good, even with the fact that the production is certainly not aiming for photorealism. So 100 points to the background and environment and lighting artists. But as usual the characters and rigging is several steps behind. The plastic doll look is not working well. At least in Ghost in the Shell is was better as they went more directly cartoony. But here it clashes with the excellent environments and stands out too much. The hair is terrible. It doesn't have any physics and is like a Lego wig. It doesn't move with gravity when they bend down. Even stylized anime video games put some effort into it. The choice or lack-of good textures and shading for skin and hair for some ultra clean look clashing with more detailed backgrounds, that while it works in 2D, or even highly stylized cell shaded characters, utterly fails here. And for all the mo-capping they are doing, the bodies are stiff at the shoulders. And there is the very annoying thing where the actors are overacting their body movements to compensate for the stiffness which I always find annoying. CG anime like this also then thinks it's better to keep doing wide shots so you can see all the CG people moving and stuff so gone is the use of well thought out camera angles and framing of scenes and cuts that plague these things because they want you to see all the mo-cap work. Well, at least the fight scenes are good. It's neat that Elle can do all this choreographed kung-fu and being all artsy about it as some replicants, but I don't like the fact that the female cop can also do it. Would've preferred is she were a more hard-boiled detective like Deckard or Joe in terms of fighting style. Just use your gun. So while Black Lotus is a step up in terms of CG TV anime. It's still a disappointment, and looks cheap overall due to the character models to the point where I wish they'd have just poured that into a regular 2D production. At the end of the day I still wish we got an anime in the style of the Shinichiro Watanabe short made for the 2049 movie which was excellent in every department. Story-wise, it's... okay so far? I suspect that Elle is a replicant and that he just lied to her about the results of the test out of sympathy and that's just telegraphing the tragedy to come. But the intriguing part is wondering whether her memories are real or not. Also this is the first time we've seen politicians of any sort in Blade Runner's universe? I'm kind of disappointed that they just turn out to be the same typical bureaucrat suit-wearing trope compared to the way Wallace and other characters are presented and designed and clothed in the films, which at least try to reimagine these roles into some new future fashionable style that is familiar but different. Here it's just Blah! Background music is okay so far. Nothing remarkable yet, no good pieces on par with the films, and the pop music op/ed is fine but not doing anything much. Well, I'm still tuning in to see where it goes, if only as an experiment in anime collaborations on western film franchises. |
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Takkun4343
Posts: 1517 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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Little fun fact about episode 4: unlike most anime - and probably due to it being an American co-pro that feels more American than Japanese - Blade Runner: Black Lotus has production codes. And episode 4's production code, "101", suggests that it was produced first. Being Elle's backstory (or lack thereof), it makes sense they'd do this first, and if not for it being framed as Elle's remembery coming back and the subsequent solidification of her end goal for the rest of the series, it could easily be watched before the first episode, albeit at the loss of the mystery behind Elle's past/lack thereof. (As if there was any mystery to begin with, even Blade Runner newbies could tell she's a replicant without watching even a minute of it, purely because of her protagonist status.)
Personally, my issue with the reveal that the chief was part of the hunt was that I didn't recognize his face. And if I did, that's because he looks like a younger version of the Senator that's already been crossed off of Elle's sh*t list. I'd argue the intent of this reveal was less "oh no, this guy we've never met before was part of the hunt!" and more "oh crap, even the big boss of the LAPD partakes in this sort of thing". Then again, corrupt police officials is so old a hat, the shock of the reveal is pretty miniscule no matter what the intent was. |
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jdnation
Posts: 2015 |
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M'eh the moment they were obviously hiding his face is the moment [Edit: removed snark. Errinundra.] the audience knows he was one of the guys there. It was so obviously spelt out that the length of time it takes to show what the audience already figured out seconds into the scene only makes it hilarious.
I too noticed what Takkun4343 pointed out that the episode code at the end was 101 and I was confused as to why the number jumped backwards so thanks to his explanation we could probably figure out that it's likely the Japanese side wanted to lead with this one, and that the story plays out similar to 'Oldboy' where a character wakes up not knowing where the heck they are or what's going on and has to piece back the story. So we'd at least constantly be moving forwards, but here they are dragging out some mystery which isn't really all that interesting. Her going out there to find out and take revenge knowing she's a replicant is better, alongside the only hook being who the guy is that obviously reprogrammed her or something and is likely also using her for his own ends, and at this point I'm just guessing he's the guy talking to Wallace. As the reviewer point out, we already know how this turns out, making going through this whole story completely void of tension, had it run first in Oldboy fashion it'd play better. That said, the reason they most likely chose not to go with it as Episode 1 is that the producers likely wanted to kick off the series in a more familiar Blade Runner setting, in the city, showing off all the CG sets and the Geisha girl we've seen a hundred times, least anyone tuning in wonder whether this had anything to do with Blade Runner or not. It also doesn't help that the desert scenery looks so drab for a CG show, and while the city environments are great, the desert is devoid of it. Even Dennis Villeneue managed to make deserted Las Vegas look and feel amazing. The episode also continues to demonstrate the poor CG decisions, the plastic people stand out especially in this dirty environment. The hair physics don't have any physics, her wet hair doesn't behave like heavy sticky wet hair by the pool, and how many years ago was she put there? Was that an implanted memory memory? Because her body is very clean for someone who's supposedly been lying there for awhile, so I'm hoping they are doing something smart with that. There are also other issues I have with it, like her waking up and talking out loud to herself about not remembering who that guy was, only to then repeat the same conversation again with somebody else a moment later regarding their memories. It's redundant. [Edit: removed snark. Errinundra.] [Avoid commenting on an anime's audience. They're reading this thread, you know. Errinundra.] |
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enurtsol
Posts: 14795 |
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Production codes don't mean anything. Or it could mean any number of things. But what it is not is just one meaning. Productions codes could mean at least any one of these: 1.) It is the intended sequence of episodes. Or 2.) It's the order the episodes are finished. Not all episodes are finished at the same pace. Also, some episodes are worked on concurrently, with some finishing ahead of others - depending on the difficulty of animating that episode, or the quality of the team that's animating it, etc. Or 3.) It's the order that the storyboards were done, even when storyboards don't correspond to the sequence of episodes. Ex: some staff begin with the storyboards for the first episode and the last episode (because they know where they want to begin and where they want to end), and then fill in the episodes in between. Some finish a storyboard as the 4th earliest, even though they intend that to be Episode #9. Some finish Episode #6 first, since it's the turning point of the season. Some storyboards are finished earlier because the staff have more clarity in what they want to do in it. Etc. etc. Again, production codes don't mean anything, or it could mean any number of things. It's up to the staff how to name them. |
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jdnation
Posts: 2015 |
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Thanks Enurtsol for the info. It'd be interesting to learn the behind-the-scenes stuff for the decision making. I do feel that the series would've played out better if this episode led first, even though it would eschew the typical Blade Runner opening style. But with some editing they could've still made it tense and ended with her arrival in the city and show off the visuals in contrast to the desert which would hook you in for the next episode. That way there'd always be forward momentum.
Sorry, I was not commenting about the audience so much as sarcastically criticising the production for treating the audience as 'dumb' with redundancy and overly obvious cinematic tells. |
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Delphisage
Posts: 55 |
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Is this a guideline also given to anyone who makes reviews? |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11419 |
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I actually kinda like Davis, the cop character, but she always has this weird grimace like she's just taken a bite of something really putrid and is wondering when she'll be able to spit it out. The longer the scene she's in, the greater the horror in her expression becomes.
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Takkun4343
Posts: 1517 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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The thing that struck me most about the katana stove explosion was the fact that I wasn't expecting it at all. Marlowe or Davis firing a bullet into the room and setting the explosion off? Sure, I could expect that. Elle's katana nicking a burner and forming a single spark that sets the place ablaze instead? Now that is satisfyingly surprising!
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jdnation
Posts: 2015 |
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The show is still very ho-hum. One episode was basically half a recap.
I too feel the show is too action choreography heavy. And not in any meaningful way or even a good way. Especially when the bad guys are so dense they literally wait for her to kill them and even walk right up to her non-chalantly. It's extremely dumb. That's twice she's been thrown from a building and survived. How much further can they go? Is there any mystery left? I'd be surprised if his son isn't the hooded man. I'm still watching just for completionist's sake. The show isn't terrible. It's just very pedestrian. Very disappointing considering the franchise it's attached to and the names involved. Especially when Watanabe did so much more with less in a beautiful traditionally animated short for 2049 with Blackout. |
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